General Motors (GM) was happy to announce that Chevrolet Volt owners have been reaching -- and even exceeding -- the EPA estimated electric range.

According to GM, typical Volt owners are traveling about 900 miles between trips to the gas station. The EPA gave the Volt a rating of 98 MPGe.

GM even found a few owners who reported seldom stops for gasoline during their time of Volt ownership. Brent Waldrep from Michigan, who has had his Volt for 21 months, has racked up over 23,500 miles and visited a gas station only twice.

“The last time, was in August (2012), and I still have about 65 percent of that tank left," said Waldrep. "I go about 9,000-10,000 miles between fill ups.”

Other customers are seeing similar results. For instance, Larry Read from Texas has only filled his tank once in 5,000 miles. Paul Friday from California said he gets about 7,000 miles between gas fill-ups.

“We’ve seen and heard from our Volt owners that they are achieving fantastic performance numbers with their vehicle as many are beating the EPA label estimates,” said Cristi Landy, Chevrolet Volt marketing director. “Our Volt owners are showing the performance potential of driving electric, and having fun doing it.”

GM even said Volt drivers are the most satisfied in the EV industry.

The Volt had a good sales year in 2012, with over 20,000 sold.

In fact, Chevrolet saw a low sales month for the Volt in November 2012 not because demand was low -- but rather, because demand was too high. It said there was low inventory for the Volt for that month because demand had been high in previous months.

The Nissan Leaf -- one of the Volt's competitors -- had to admit that it wasn’t going to hit its sales mark for 2012, which was 20,000 Leafs. Nissan only sold 9,819 Leafs for the whole year -- less than half of its goal, and only 1.5 percent higher than the number it sold in 2011.

No comments on how their electricity bill changed at all? Everything in the article would the typical idiot to believe that you can drive 9,000 miles with just one tank of gas and nothing else. What are their electricity bills like now compared to before?

The Volt has a 16Kwh battery. Look up your electric bill rate, mine is 9.5c per Kwh plus some additional fees. I'd guess it ends up at around 12c per Kwh, that means it will cost 12x16 = $1.92 to fully charge it from a complete discharge. Worst case scenario, it needs a full charge every single night comes out to just under 60 bucks a month, or a little bit more than the cost to fill up the fuel tank from empty once, and that is a scenario where you're driving 40 miles a day. Others may live in areas with higher electric bill, but I think it's probable that areas with high electric rates are likely to also be areas with high gasoline costs as well.

And I really have no problem with articles that don't assume the reader is a 'typical idiot'. Anyone with half a brain knows you aren't going to go 9000 miles in a single drive in these cars. Those without half a brain are irrelevant.

Some areas are better suited to this than others. In CA, the Volt would put you in the next tier (ie more expensive electricity) BUT you can "split" your meter to allow for EV charging and get a reduced rate. To get the best rate a second meter needs to be installed (I'd do the 2nd meter). Cost of the meter varies from $300 to "we don't allow 2nd meters in residencies". Depends on where you live.

My Volt requires about 200kWh from my home for a month's commuting and travel on average, and I get another "free" 200kWh or so from public charging (6mo unlimited for $25). At 11 cents per kWh all in, that's a bit more than $20/mo additional for 500mi of travel. That comes to about 4 cents per mile when charging at home, and 8/10 of a cent per mile when charging publicly. When on gas it runs about 12-14 cents per mile, and for all of 2012 I spent $311 for gasoline for both the car and a motorcycle.